Of all the phobias in the world, nothing could be worse than the fear of speaking to a large gathering. Analysts are like anyone else and so also fear public speaking opportunities and therefore try to avoid them as much as possible. However, one can become a good public speaker in Analytics if he takes into account the pointers listed below.
Here are three top reasons why analysts must spend time honing their public speaking skills:
Low Adoption of Analysis Results
For die-hard analysts, nothing could be more frustrating than to find that the findings of their analysis have not been accepted. This is due to their poor public speaking skills because of which they are unconvincing speakers who cannot get their views across to their audience. Consequently, their research finds poor takers.
Public Speaking Skills, a Huge Requirement
These days, the career path of analysts is very vague. Some of them become managers while others remain analysts. Why does this happen? The others have an edge over these analysts because of their proven talent in public speaking. So, it’s important to know a skill related to one’s career, as in this case, public speaking. This gives them an edge over their competitors. When the occasion demands it, they can make a good presentation and prove that they can be good public speakers in Analytics.
Better Communication Skills
A research paper is just part of the talents required for being a good Data Analyst. A related talent is to present it effectively so that people understand the data one presents. The manner of such a presentation requires one to have better than average communication skills.
Here are some quick tips an analyst can follow to be an effective communicator:
- Learn about your company’s business and progress so that you can connect that with your presentation
- Ask yourself what insights you bring to the table
- Present details, but don’t get lost in them
- Place before your audience easily digestible facts and figures
Presentation Skills
Though there are occasions when analysts send their work around digitally to a large audience. But there could be times when a live interaction is called for. For those occasions, it is better to have not just your facts at your fingertips but present them in a polished and studied manner.
A good speaker should display these traits during a presentation:
- Have an easy and clear-to-follow structure with insights shown in a logical sequence
- Focus on what’s important and navigate your way through easily
- Anticipate follow-up questions
By preparing well and listening hard to your stakeholders, you will build credibility as a speaker.
Data Visualization Skills
To people who have incisive minds, your insights on a whiteboard aren’t that important. What’s more important is the ability to paint a broad sweep picture that tells them at a glance what’s happening exactly. This could be as basic as drawing a process flow on a whiteboard. This gives an overview of everyone present.
While presenting your analysis, you will communicate your insights either in a report, chart or interactive dashboard. For this, you need to choose the right data visualization medium and design it effectively so that key findings are obvious. So, give your facts and figures a context. Show them in relation to what they were last year, six months ago or 10 years ago, etc.
Conclusion
If you want to be a good speaker for career advancement, you must start today. By beginning today, you take all those opportunities that will come your way now and use them to improve your skills slowly and steadily.
